Youth voices about sex and AIDS: implications for life skills education through the ‘Learning Together’ project in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa

Abstract

This paper focuses on youth voices about sex and AIDS and reveals significant discrepancies between the ‘ideal adult worldview’ and the ‘practical youth worldview’ on sexual matters. In discussing the ‘youth worldview’, it draws on Piaget’s theories of childhood development and Perry’s theory of student development, both theories which postulate that children cannot learn material if they have not reached a particular level of development. It concludes that life skills implementation is the key issue to HIV prevention among young people. It is argued that such a programme should take the rights‐based approach in order to get a firm grip of actual sexual practices among youth. It is further argued that this is only possible where there is maximum youth engagement—and this can be achieved through role modelling and the use of visual and arts‐based participatory methodologies.

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on work supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF). The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding and support of the NRF. Opinions, findings, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and, therefore, the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto.

Notes

1. The Learning Together research team is made up of Naydene de Lange, Myra Taylor, Fikile Mazibuko, Relebohile Moletsane, Claudia Mitchell, Jean Stuart, Thabisile Buthelezi and Kathleen Pithouse.